Injured turkey vulture rescued in Kingston is released after rehabilitation (video)

Hudson sits on a tree limb getting her bearings before flying out of sight after her release on Thursday. (Annie Mardiney photo)

ROSENDALE, N.Y. -- "Hudson," the turkey vulture that spent two days hanging upside down in a tree, tangled in fishing line, has flown the coop.

Wildlife rehabilitator Annie Mardiney said she freed the vulture, who she named Hudson, late Thursday afternoon.

"It seemed like she was ready to go," Mardiney said Monday. "Her foot was completely healed." She said the vulture was "feisty" and eating well, and she did not see the value in keeping Hudson in captivity any longer. Mardiney said she did not want the vulture to lose her wing strength from not being able to fly freely.

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The turkey vulture was stuck high in a tree on Hudson Street in Kingston for two days before someone called city police on April 21. Police then called Mardiney, who is licensed as a wildlife rehabilitator by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and migratory bird rehabilitator by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Kingston Fire Department was also called, and firefighters using their ladder truck were able to climb up, remove a section of tree limb, place the bird in a net and turn it over to Mardiney.

When the vulture was retrieved, it was discovered it had been tangled in fishing line that had "basically amputated" the bird's middle toe on the trapped foot, Mardiney had said. The line trapped the bird by one leg, and she was upside down in the tree with her other leg, wings and head free. Luckily, the bird suffered no fractures or dislocations in her trapped leg.

After her rescue from the tree, the vulture spent time in rehabilitation at Mardiney's home in Rosendale.

Mardiney said she released the bird Thursday in an area of Rosendale that was away from her home and where there were not a lot of people. She said she brought Hudson to a location in a carrier, opened the door and backed away. When the bird realized Mardiney was not going to do anything, she said, the vulture walked out, looked around and flapped her wings a bit before taking off into a tree.

After surveying the area and getting her bearings, Hudson flew out of sight, Mardiney said.